Supply Chain Impact From Bridge Collapse Will Be Minimal, Says De Bok

Just how far down the supply chain do you expect to see some impacts, some ripples, consequences fall out from what’s developed this week. Yeah. The thing is, is the main impact of this one is more in in the automotive roll on roll off it’s it’s less on the on the container part. Of course there is a container element in there. Actually we’ve got few containers on the ship as well which we need to manage at the moment. But I think if you see one thing and we were discussing that earlier, if you see one common theme in supply chain management over the past four years is that ability to fast respond that agility to fast make changes into how how a supply chain is organised. And I think that’s what you’re going to see here as well. You’re going to see a shift from container movements from this port to other ports you’re going to see. So I think while the impact to the port itself is, is dramatic, while obviously the event itself is tragic, but the overall impact on the global supply chain and the US supply chain I think will not be as, as as large as as you would fear. You mentioned you’ve got some containers on the ship. Can you just walk us through how those conversations go in the last couple of days, what communications like? Yeah, I don’t obviously I’ve not, I’ve not been directly involved in the in the discussion on that. But I mean it’s it’s a few containers. So it’s not compared to the number of containers we have there. But one of the things is you need to make sure of how we get them released and how we can find alternative routes for them, how we make sure that our customers can plan the products that are in their alternative routes, alternative plans, alternative plans, alternative products. So to keep those supply chains running. And I think the, the main, I was saying that probably the last interview with with with actually with Bloomberg at the time said there is something around the corner in supply chains every time we just don’t know what it is. I couldn’t have guessed that. Now we will be talking about obviously this event. And I think one of the main things that you see is that both our customers and ourselves, but I would say everybody working around supply chain, but actually also everybody working in other parts of our customers is now far more attuned to having to respond fast decision making using data to make sure that we can have the alternatives and fast and found alternative solutions. How to manage supply chain ’cause I think this is one of those events that they’re that they will be happening, which raises the question of how much you have to sort of create redundancies inherent in your supply chains and in your system in order to be flexible, to handle, say, A2 hour delay. Because you’ve got to go a different route around Baltimore and get into Washington, DC things that seem like they’d be disastrous if I were traveling with my kids. But you have to manage and make the time see this seem the same. Yeah. And I think I think that that is a very important point where in the past, let’s say more than four years ago, it was all about just in time, right. It was all about having the the lowest stock levels possible, having the most efficient and cost effective supply chain. What you know is as you see is it’s far more about the resilience of supply chains to make sure that they’re organizing such a way that you can respond to these things. Because if you got your minimum stock levels, then obviously a 2 hour delay is actually dramatic. If you make sure that you build the supply chain in such a way that you can respond to that, it already helps. And I think that’s something that you see happening at the moment is that rather that the, the, the let’s say the minor cost is the main thing now it is making sure that supply chain keep running because many of our customers have now realized that supply chains are more about availability and making sure that you can continue to serve customers rather than only having minimal levels of minimum cost. Does this make the just in time promise that so many of the companies were trying to offer less of a possibility or even a desired outcome and more just the resiliency and the ability to be flexible much more of the priority. I think it’s exactly it’s the availability of products which comes more and more far more to the priority than purely the just in time because the what we all have learned is that the cost over this optimized supply chain because of an event is way higher than having a 5 or 10% lower higher stock level. Now obviously with today’s interests and stock levels are still have become obviously more relevant to to to reduce those and that’s I think we’re also the whole element of that analytics converting into AI, converting into generative AI come in as well to make sure that we plan supply chains in real time better and better on the use of data and also on the use of historical data. And there’s a lot of historical data in the past four years that helps us to to learn how you can respond to things. What what makes shipping so complicated is because Secretary Pete Buttigieg talked about this yesterday, There’s no like air traffic controller like there is for flying when it comes to logistics, when it comes to shipping. How can technology change that to make it more transparent? And when we talk about port control, there actually is so in for instance in ports there is a traffic control and the connection between the ports. So I think I think in shipping it’s more advanced than it makes it seem. And I think some of the elements that you could see in this event as well is that they have been able to respond pretty fast to avoid even more dramatic events because of of a good communication that that there was. So, but you’re right, the use of data and is fast evolving and one of the things that you see in general in the logistics sector is that the amount of investments that goes into the sector compared to four years ago is exponentially more. That means that the amount of innovation in the sector is exponentially more and that you see that in data in what we can do with data and what we can do with data analytics. You see that in robotic solution and other innovations. So therefore you see a fast evolvement. And I would say internally I would say that if you look at the last four years, the speed of innovation in the logistics sector compared to the 10 years before is is mind bogging. So it is. So that is actually which helps us to further increase and improve compared to the airline industry where you see the opposite. When you look at the communication between the government people who judge again today, I mean shippers and supply chain logistic partners. How has that communication been between the public and private in these type of events that I think the collaboration between public and private. But if you take for instance the example between ports, because ports is in some cases public, some cases private, some case, the mix of the mix of both, I think there is a good interaction. But I think if you look at the speed within which that has has evolved on the business side. So for instance now the interactions with companies is far more on sea level than where that before would be two levels levels down. Because CEOs and CFOs of our customers see the importance of being very close of what’s happening in supply chains, because that’s a a different shader in in your your profitability, your market share, your growth. I think gradually governments need to make that same step to make sure that to understand how important it is for the success of the economy to really be close to the infrastructure. And that’s not only hardware but it’s also software and those investment need to come from there as well. You talk a lot about building out resilience. When we look at supply chains particularly over the last few years, things feel quite fragile from your perspective of things more fragile and more resilient over the last few years post pandemic, I think they are they are the to put to use different words, I think the capability to respond to the unexpected has evolved enormously. The only point is that the unexpected happens more than in the past. So, so I think it has improved a lot and that is because of bigger investments the the, the view of of necessity of of having those capabilities. But on the other hand the number of events is evolving faster than than than the development of the sector. But I must say if you look at if I talk about DHL, but if I also talk about the market in general and our and our customers the capability of responding to things as as evolved enormously. So does that mean that you’re able to charge more and that shipping will in general cost more because building and resilience is expensive, charge more and cost more? Two different things, right? Because I think what what you see is that because the professionalization of the sector has evolved and therefore the value that it brings has evolved. So it might be that there is a higher price to pay, but actually the benefit might also be higher. So that doesn’t necessarily translate in higher cost because the efficiency might be improved as well.